Red Sox continue theme of botching Rafael Devers contract talks

One of the biggest priorities for the Red Sox is locking up star third baseman Rafael Devers to a long-term contract but the front office is botching it.

No one involved with the Boston Red Sox should or likely is pleased with how the 2022 season played out. But as they move towards the future, they have monster decisions to make about two of their home-grown superstars, Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers.

The former is slated to become a free agent this offseason and, after extension negotiations all but went nowhere (at least nowhere positive), there is a chance he leaves Boston, the team with whom he’s played his entire career to this point. And in the case of Devers, the Red Sox are in an unfortunately similar position of messing up the situation.

Last offseason, Boston offered the third baseman a shockingly low deal, but reportedly reignited negotiations within the past week. The latest reports about those negotiations, however, do not paint the Red Sox in a favorable light.

Red Sox latest offer to Rafael Devers is another mishandling of situation

MLB insider Jon Heyman reported for the New York Post on Thursday that, if there is a silver lining, that Boston reportedly crossed the $200 million threshold in their latest offer to Devers. The bad news is that Devers, who is slated to become a free agent after next season, is looking for a contract in the $300 million range over 10 seasons.

That is a massive gap between the two sides and, frankly, it shows that Boston is just missing the point still.

Devers has already established himself as a superstar-caliber talent in his early 20s and has improved as an overall player, both offensively and defensively, with every season that he’s been in the league. Now, because the team either doesn’t want to spend or is trying to play hardball, they are feigning like they aren’t going to pay him market value when he has all the leverage in the world.

Losing either Bogaerts and Devers would be a bad sign of things to come for the Red Sox under Chaim Bloom, but right now with this latest offer and the way things have trended, it seems as if Boston is on the verge of losing both players, which would be a certified disaster at Fenway.